Ready to jump into the furniture rehab game? Some tips from experts:
• Decide whether you want to distress a new piece for a vintage look, or paint an older piece to give it new life.
John Gidding of HGTV’s $250,000 Challenge suggests updating old furniture in new ways: For one chair, he painted the legs gunmetal gray and the rest of the chair black.
• He advises “going crazy” with color on smaller pieces. A single hallway chair could go orange, teal or purple. But if you paint a chair a lively color, reupholster the fabric seat (if it has one) in a neutral color and pattern. “It’s sexy,” he says.
Neil Wertheimer, editor-in-chief of Fresh Home magazine, also advises getting creative with color.
“If you don’t want to take a risk on your wall paint, take a risk on your smaller furniture,” he says.
Jewel tones, such as ruby red or amethyst, are popular now, he says. Metallic paints can add interest; some come with a sandy texture.
“My wife and I just refinished a classic flea market table using a bronze-colored metallic paint,” Wertheimer says. “It came out gorgeous.”
The Associated Press
A fresh coat of paint can give old furniture a second life.
“Everyone should have lots of courage and confidence,” says Neil Wertheimer, editor-in-chief of Fresh Home, a new D.I.Y. magazine. “This is not hard! A piece of wood furniture is wood and screws and coating, and all three are easily fixed and replaced.”
The key to a good redo is to take your time and work through all the steps. Wertheimer should know. He admits to skipping a critical step – the primer – in the past, and paying the price with a less attractive piece.
“The primer creates something for paint to adhere to so much better. It’s made to be sticky for paint,” Wertheimer says. “Paint does not stick well to old finishes and old paint and to whatever else might be on there.”
John Gidding, a judge on HGTV’s $250,000 Challenge, has seen, and done, a lot of furniture rehabbing as an HGTV designer. He says primary candidates for a paint job often are a handed-down dining room table and chairs.
“The reason for this is they’re expensive,” Gidding says. “You either get something really cheap or you take what your mom gives you.”
Either way, these dining sets often don’t fit a couple’s style, and painting them can fix that.
One shortcut that’s OK for casual pieces: spray paint. “We use it for everything around here,” says Veronica Toney, associate decorating editor at BHG.com, the Web site for Better Homes and Gardens magazine.
She says it’s inexpensive, easy to use and doesn’t leave behind pesky brush strokes. The trick is to spray slowly to avoid drips and uneven painting.
The first step in any wood-furniture rehab project, says Wertheimer, is to repair structural and visual flaws. Tighten loose legs, grease sticky drawers, buy new knobs, etc. Use wood putty to fill cracks or holes. Then, lightly sand the piece and go over it with a tack cloth to remove the dust. Finally, prime it, paint it and, if necessary, give it a protective layer of polyurethane.
A piece that sits around and looks pretty but isn’t actually used doesn’t need the protective top coat. But a piece such as the D.I.Y. table project above, which could find itself home to keys and loose coins, needs at least one coat of polyurethane.
Jennifer Forker,
The Associated Press
A HANDSOME, HIGH-GLOSS TABLE
Adapted from Fresh Home magazine
Supplies:
A wood table (new or old)
Wood putty
180-grit sandpaper
Tack cloth
Oil-based, black satin paint
Mineral spirits
High-gloss, oil-based polyurethane
Paint brushes
How to do it:
1. Prepare the surface: Fill cracks and holes with wood putty, let harden, then lightly sand all surfaces. Use a tack cloth to remove dust.
2. Apply the primer: Brush primer onto entire surface, let dry. (Oil paint will adhere to latex primer, but an oil-based primer works better.)
3. Apply the paint: Thin the black paint about 10 percent with the mineral spirits, then apply a smooth coat, brushing in one direction.
4. Apply the top coat: Let the paint dry, then lightly sand and remove dust with a tack cloth. Apply a coat of polyurethane. Lightly sand and repeat with another coat, if desired.
Tips: Remove drawers and paint them separately. Flip the table upside down and paint the legs and underside before flipping the table upright to finish.
Source : http://www.dallasnews.com
